Spain Trip 2011 (Andalucia,Madrid)

[JoHaN 15]

Thanks for all your replies guys, I appreciate it. Now some new pictures!!

Day 3 our host family had to work so we went to the tourist office and got some maps to explore Jaen. We walked up the Paseo de la Estacion and then focused on the neighbourhoods of Magdalena and San Juan (If I remember correctly). Then we went to the Ayuntamiento and Cathedral of Jaen. After that we went bar hopping with the woman while her husband worked and then when it was night they took us up to see the Castle of Jaen

This first set is only from our walk up towards the neighbourhoods of Magdalena and San Juan.

28. Mountain of Jaen in the distance
image hosted on flickr

116 by JohanSur, on Flickr

29. New park in Jaen
image hosted on flickr

119 by JohanSur, on Flickr

30. Walkway in the park
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

31. Fountains in the park
image hosted on flickr

124 by JohanSur, on Flickr

32. Fountains
image hosted on flickr

126 by JohanSur, on Flickr

33. Apartment blocks next to the park
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128 by JohanSur, on Flickr

34. New Jaen art museum
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135 by JohanSur, on Flickr

35. Paseo de la Estacion with tram lines
image hosted on flickr

136 by JohanSur, on Flickr

36. View towards Parque de la Victoria
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137 by JohanSur, on Flickr

37. A cutey Spanish restaurant
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140 by JohanSur, on Flickr

38. Decorative tiles
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

39. College of Purity?
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Fabeiro

Very beautiful pictures, and you too xD

Thanks

[Jonesy55]

How did you find prices compared to SA? A lot more?

[Jota]

Originally Posted by JoHaN 15

Nope, it was a bit expensive to go to the North and we only had 17 days. I'll return again in the next few years to do the North and Barca
...

Flights from Seville to Barcelona starting at 29.99 euros.
And one important thing:
We never say "Barca" for Barcelona, we say BCN or Barna. "Barca" means boat in Spanish! LOL

[JoHaN 15]

Sorry if I can't name all the churches, there were so many! I only remembered the ones that interested me the most.

40. Street in San Juan
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

41. Historic building under renovation
image hosted on flickr

151 by JohanSur, on Flickr

42. Church detail
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152 by JohanSur, on Flickr

43. Another street in San Juan
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

44. Parroquia de Santa Maria Magdalena
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

45. Two abuelos (grandparents) in front of the Parroquia de Santa Maria Magdalena
image hosted on flickr

165 by JohanSur, on Flickr

46. Courtyard inside the Parroquia de Santa Maria Magdalena
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170 by JohanSur, on Flickr

47. View towards the mountains
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. by JohanSur, on Flickr

48. A beautiful church whose name I can't recall
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. by JohanSur, on Flickr

49. Courtyard inside the church
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180 by JohanSur, on Flickr

50. We snuck in and took a photo when the guy in front wasn't looking lol
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184 by JohanSur, on Flickr

51. Very narrow street in Magdalena
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. by JohanSur, on Flickr

52. Colourful apartments in San Juan
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186 by JohanSur, on Flickr

53. Main street in San Juan
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

54. Just to put the narrowness in perspective
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. by JohanSur, on Flickr

[JoHaN 15]

Originally Posted by Jota

Flights from Seville to Barcelona starting at 29.99 euros.
And one important thing:
We never say "Barca" for Barcelona, we say BCN or Barna. "Barca" means boat in Spanish! LOL

Oh wow! That really is cheap. My friend and her father (they are a bit pretentious and think they are well travelled) told me that it's very expensive to go to Barcelona. I thought it would be in the 80 Euro range...

Oh lol, in SA we say Barca for the football team

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

How did you find prices compared to SA? A lot more?

They were quite a bit more expensive, but it mostly depended on where you went. On thing I noticed was that Spain had no middle class restaurants. Either you went to a small family restaurant (5-10 Euros per person) or you went to these expensive restaurants (8-15 Euro). In SA you would find a really nice restaurant and pay about 7-8 Euros.

Transport however was extremely cheap (15-20 Euros for intercity bus tickets)

[Jonesy55]

I think those EUR8-15 restaurants probably are the middle class restaurants, the expensive ones can be a lot more!

In Andalucia there always seem to be plenty of little tapas places which are fairly cheap and usually tasty.

[JoHaN 15]

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

I think those EUR8-15 restaurants probably are the middle class restaurants, the expensive ones can be a lot more!

In Andalucia there always seem to be plenty of little tapas places which are fairly cheap and usually tasty.

Either way the prices were quite steep. I came to a point where I just stopped converting things back to Rand

The cheapest we managed to eat was at a bar where you paid EUR 1.80 for a coke and then got half a hamburger as a tapa. The first night we didn't know how the bar worked and thought you only got one tapa if you ordered drinks so we ordered a large plate of Calamari and another plate with 15 Croquetas as well. Due to the sheer amount of food we ordered, we got thirsty quicker and then ordered another round of drinks,. To our horror we got 2 more tapas

In total we ate 7 plates of food between us lol. I had to refuse tapas when we ordered drinks again.

[Jonesy55]

Spain is quite reasonable compared to many West European countries, try Switzerland for your next trip!

[xJamaax]

Did you really have fun?I was expecting to see more clubbing/partying, playing games, riding stuff, pimping e.t.c

[JoHaN 15]

Originally Posted by xJamaax

Did you really have fun?I was expecting to see more clubbing/partying, playing games, riding stuff, pimping e.t.c

Who takes pictures of themselves clubbing or partying? Unless you are really desperate to show the world how "cool" you are. We got drunk a couple of times but during the day when all my pics were taken we mostly did sightseeing.

I might show some pics of us in a bar when I'm done with all the city pics

[skytrax]

I was also in Madrid last month, but only for a day.

[JoHaN 15]

55. Another church
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

56. The Virgin Mary and Jesus <3
image hosted on flickr

202 by JohanSur, on Flickr

57. Some cool graffiti in San Juan
image hosted on flickr

203 by JohanSur, on Flickr

58. Sculpture against a building
image hosted on flickr

. by JohanSur, on Flickr

59. Street in front of the government building in Jaen


60. Government building of Jaen


61. Street in Jaen city center


62. Back of the Cathedral of Jaen


63. Trees and benches at the back of the Cathedral


64. Side of the Cathedral


65. Ayuntamiento de Jaen


66. Cathedral of Jaen entrance


67. Detail of the entrance


68. Interesting facade on an old building

[JoHaN 15]

The final pics of Jaen; a few streets scenes and the Castle


69. Small church in lower Jaen


70. Small plaza


71. Statue of the Virgin next to the church


72. Detail of a church window


73. Plaza near the Cathedral of Jaen (The woman, her brother and father are in this pic)


74. A better picture of the government building


75. Very narrow street


76. Castle of Jaen at night


77. The Castle and the moon


78. Another angle of the castle


79. Me on a cliff on which one of the towers were built lolz


80. Cross on a cliff


81. Cathedral of Jaen as seen from the castle by night



And with that ends day three. I'll post day 4 tomorrow where we went to Granada to have some fun in the snow

[xJamaax]

Originally Posted by JoHaN 15

Who takes pictures of themselves clubbing or partying? Unless you are really desperate to show the world how "cool" you are. We got drunk a couple of times but during the day when all my pics were taken we mostly did sightseeing.

I might show some pics of us in a bar when I'm done with all the city pics

But it's almost the same thing with taking sightseeing photos. Someone might say you are desperate to show the world how "cool" you are by taking those photos.

[Deebo.]

i have an uncle that lives in mallorca spain...i can't to visit him and his wife someday...maybe after they have their child

[christos-greece]

Awesome and very nice photos from your trip, Johan

[Atomicus]

Originally Posted by JoHaN 15

image hosted on flickr

Damn, this pic is beautiful...

Your other pics are nice too, nice thread.

[costa]

Great trip Johan. It's amazing how many imposing buildings the small spanish cities can have.

Originally Posted by xJamaax

Did you really have fun?I was expecting to see more clubbing/partying, playing games, riding stuff, pimping e.t.c

Tourism = get drunk? Interesting.

[xJamaax]

Originally Posted by costa

Great trip Johan. It's amazing how many imposing buildings the small spanish cities can have.





Tourism = get drunk? Interesting.

Different countries have different ways of having fun including clubbing, why cant he also post the Spanish experience?

Clubbing in Africa or Saudi Arabia may not be the same as in Spain or Europe in general. I cant see the problem of showing us those photos too.

[Jota]

Originally Posted by JoHaN 15

Oh wow! That really is cheap. My friend and her father (they are a bit pretentious and think they are well travelled) told me that it's very expensive to go to Barcelona. I thought it would be in the 80 Euro range...

Oh lol, in SA we say Barca for the football team



They were quite a bit more expensive, but it mostly depended on where you went. On thing I noticed was that Spain had no middle class restaurants. Either you went to a small family restaurant (5-10 Euros per person) or you went to these expensive restaurants (8-15 Euro). In SA you would find a really nice restaurant and pay about 7-8 Euros.

Transport however was extremely cheap (15-20 Euros for intercity bus tickets)

Barca is boat in Spanish. The football team is Barça with Ç, and you pronounce "Barsa".

In Spain there are cheap restaurants (5-7€ per person for a full meal with drink ans dessert), middle class restaurants (8-15€ per person for a full meal with drink ans dessert), pricey restaurants (16-30€) and more...

Buses and planes tickets are cheap but train tickets are expensive, mainly AVE (high speed train) tickets.